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Unorthodox therapy gains local following
By
Rick Rogers
STAFF WRITER
March 31, 2005
LAURA EMBRY / Union-Tribune
Susan Hannibal, a self-described
intuitive healer from Vista, demonstrated the
Emotional Freedom Technique used to treat
stress.
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VISTA – A once-dismissed therapy for
mental disorders is gaining a following among San Diego medical
experts who treat combat veterans.
Social workers, chaplains and
psychiatrists from Naval Medical Center San Diego and Camp
Pendleton are learning the Emotional Freedom Technique, an
unorthodox method that even its creator can't explain precisely.
It and a treatment that uses virtual
reality are two of the enterprising approaches being tried at
the medical center to alleviate combat-induced psychological
wounds.
The Emotional Freedom Technique was
developed by Stanford engineer Gary Craig in the 1990s. It was
largely ignored by the mental health establishment because no
one had conducted a study on its effectiveness.
But Jeannie Ertl, a senior clinical social
worker at the medical center, gave the technique a chance in
November.
She and many of her patients are happy
that she did.
"EFT is tremendous for treating anxiety
associated with post traumatic stress disorder," Ertl said.
CRISSY
PASCUAL / Union-Tribune
Seaman Wilbur Hurley, a 20-year-old corpsman, returned
from Camp Pendleton from Iraq in October plagued with
horrible visions. He has since been treated for
post-traumatic stress disorder using the Emotional
Freedom Technique, which is based on the same theory as
acupuncture.
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She has tried the method on 15 patients,
12 of whom found it helpful at relieving or eliminating symptoms
such as anxiety and stress. Ertl uses the technique, which
hasn't been approved by the Defense Department, in conjunction
with more traditional therapies.
"It seems to work for a lot of people,"
she said.
Seaman Wilbur Hurley is one of them.
Hurley, a 20-year-old corpsman, returned
to Camp Pendleton in October plagued with horrible visions. In
mid-September, he had witnessed a young Marine kill himself
while serving in Iraq. It was just weeks before Hurley returned
to his base at Camp Pendleton.
"I don't care what happened in Iraq,"
Hurley promised himself. "What happened there would stay there."
But back home in Calvert County, Md.,
Hurley couldn't erase the image of the dead Marine.
"I felt like a black cloud was over my
head every day," Hurley said. "I had vivid dreams of walking
through fields of gore. I isolated myself from friends and
family."
By early December, anxiety attacks
sometimes made Hurley pull to the side of the road until his
tremors passed.
Willing to try something new, Hurley
followed a friend's advice and went to Susan Hannibal, a
self-described intuitive healer from Vista who uses the
Emotional Freedom Technique to treat stress, anxiety and post
traumatic stress disorder. It was Hannibal who taught the
technique to Ertl and several military chaplains.
Hannibal explained to Hurley how the
method is based on the same theory as acupuncture – that the
body is an energy field with points that can be manipulated to
restore health.
Patients focus on a traumatizing event
while repeating a self-affirming chant and tapping parts of
their body, such as their hands, lips and sides. A typical
session is about 90 minutes, and some results can be seen after
a single session.
"Once I started doing the tapping, an
overwhelming calm came over me," Hurley said. "I had no cares or
worries in the world. In fact I left Sue's (office) singing. It
was pretty much the greatest day of my life."
Hurley spent that weekend trying to summon
bad feelings just to prove that he could stay calm. He
concentrated on the worst cases he'd seen while patching up
Marines for seven months in Ramadi. He also thought about the
suicidal Marine.
"But I felt nothing. It wasn't there
anymore," Hurley said.
More then a month later, Hurley said he
believes that what happened in Iraq is finally staying there.
"Nothing that happened over there ruins my
day now," he said.
For more information about the Emotional
Freedom Technique, visit
www.behaviourchanges.com or
www.guidedhealing.com.
Rick Rogers:
(760) 476-8212;
rick.rogers@uniontrib.com |
